Nameless
by Specked Band 44
Summary: A rose by any other name is still a rose, right? But for a few certain people, names mean everything. This is the untold story of a woman without a name, and a man that there is really only one name for. Possible light Rumbelle romance, takes place before, during and after 1x12 'Skin Deep', mostly cannon. Rated T just to be safe. My first fanfic, please read and review!
1. Prologue

Nameless

Prologue

A/N: Takes place during 1x12 "Skin Deep".

Disclaimer: I do not own "Once Upon a Time" or any of its characters.

Moe French was arranging flowers on a stand just outside of his truck. He had a certain fondness for flowers. Perhaps it was because they reminded him of his late wife. She loved flowers more than anything in the world, and before she died, she said that she wanted a baby girl that would be more precious to her than all the flowers in the world. Moe happily agreed. As much as he wanted a son, he wanted a daughter more. He wanted a charming little girl with a bright smile and her mother's beautiful eyes, and she would be their little flower.

However, before they had the chance to bring a daughter into the world, Mrs. French fell very ill. Moe didn't have too many memories of that time, and he didn't like to think about it either. It would have been too painful. He would rather look at the flowers and remember his beautiful wife that way. He often thought of her smile and her laugh. His only regret was that they didn't have any children before she died. But he thought perhaps it was for the better. He could barely afford the rent on both his home and truck.

Speaking of his truck, he did not yet have enough money to pay for this month's rent. Perhaps if he got lucky, he wouldn't run into the infamous Mr. Gold until the next day. If he could make it to Valentine's Day, the busiest and most profitable day of the year for Moe French, he would have enough money.

Moe went to the truck to unload more flowers, and as soon as he pulled out a bucket of roses, standing there was Mr. Gold himself and a big bald bodyguard.

"Well this is just perfect. I've been looking for you, Mr. French." Mr. Gold said.

Moe put all his previous sentimentality aside. It was time for business.

"I'll have your money next week." he said coldly. Moe didn't know why, but he didn't like Mr. Gold, and he could tell that Mr. Gold didn't like him either. But why? Moe French never did anything to offend Mr. Gold. Or did he?

"The terms of the loan were fairly specific." Mr. Gold replied. "Take the van."

As the bald man drove away in the van, both the van's owner and renter knew that this was not going to be a good day to be Moe French.

A/N: Just a somewhat fluffy prologue to get the story going. I just wanted to make it clear that Moe French has no idea that he has a daughter locked up in the hospital. The next chapter will feature Belle heavily and possibly Mr. Gold. This is my first fanfic, so reviews are especially appreciated. :)


	2. The patient

Chapter 1

Only a few months before, in the secret basement of Storybrooke Hospital, a young woman with chestnut hair and pale blue eyes would spend every day lying down on a cold slab that was supposed to symbolize a bed. She had been in a daze ever since she could remember, and each day seemed to start over when she finally got to sleep.

Her daily schedule had started with the following: Waking up from dreams she never remembered, though she tried with all her might, waiting for the nurse to come in, and taking unlabeled 'medications' along with a meager breakfast. If anything, all the medicine did was make her more out of it than she already was. She also wasn't sure what exactly what was in the stuff on the plastic tray brought to her every morning. The only thing she recognized was a small portion of dried fruit. But then again, after having never tasted real food, there was no way she was going to recognize whatever was on the tray. However, as this was her only source of nourishment, she left a clean tray on the floor after every meal.

After breakfast, there was the waiting time until the meds kicked in. She would often sit in a sort of meditation until that time. Then came the afternoon nap. When she woke up, she would find lunch (or dinner depending on how long she slept,) on the floor near the door. There were usually fewer pills to take with both meals.

Sometimes, she would think of the only other people she knew: the nurses. Did they have their own rooms? Their own pills to take? But before she could ponder on this any longer, something always distracted her. A nurse would suddenly come in, or she would fall asleep.

The girl never questioned her place in her 'room'. It simply was what it was, and she knew no other form of existence. In fact, she didn't remember ever not being where she was. But again, this was not a subject on which she thought of for long. It was simply too tiresome to think of where she was before, if such a place existed at all. But that would change one day, when a little yellow car drove into the town the girl didn't even know existed. Up until that point, she never questioned anything. She didn't even realize that she didn't have a name.

At that time and miles away, a lonely old pawn shop sat on the corner of the street. Most people avoided the shop, if they could, not because of the location or the merchandise, but because of the man that stood behind the counter at the shop.

Mr. Gold was polishing a few brass trinkets that had once belonged to a mermaid. It was almost funny to see all the little things that ended up in his shop. Almost. There were a few things that he came across that he kept for himself, among them a chipped teacup. It had once had a set it belonged to, but that was no more. It was individual.

_Just like her_, he thought. He stopped what he was doing for a moment to look out the window. A little yellow car that he had never seen before drove past. Inside was a blond stranger. Gold thought for a moment. It had been the right amount of time, and he also knew Henry had the book and had snuck out of the mayor's house recently.

Rumplestiltskin smiled. His plan was finally going into action. If the newcomer stayed the night, there was only one place she would end up at the end of the day. It was about time to go collect the rent at Granny's Bed and Breakfast anyway. It would also be nice to see the look on Regina's face.

Regina stood in her kitchen finishing up her apple cider recipe as she pondered her advantages over Mr. Gold.

_He's been plotting something. I know it._ she thought. Gold had smirked at her the day before in an '_I-know-something-you-don't'_ way.

Gold didn't exactly pose a threat to Regina herself (well, not yet anyway,) but she liked to have some sort of leverage against him at all times, in case he somehow got his old memories back. She did in fact have the ultimate leverage against him, but she was saving that for a special occasion, should it arise. Regina knew that if she used this 'weapon' against him at the wrong moment, the consequences would be…unfathomable. Or it might not work at all.

But the question was, would Mr. Gold really fall to his knees and obey her every order just to save a girl that the curse probably made him forget? The girl certainly didn't remember him. No, of course he wouldn't save her. That is, unless the curse gave him some kind of memory of her.

_But how to test this?_ she wondered. She couldn't let him know what she was doing. He would suspect _something_. She needed someone to gather information on him. She knew several people who could do the job.

As Regina stood in her kitchen pondering this, the doorbell rang. She had been expecting Henry back home any moment, but she didn't expect him to bring along…a stranger. Strangers don't come to Storybrooke.

_I will deal with Gold soon enough_. Regina thought. _This must be taken care of first._

A/N: Okay, so I changed how the story was going to start off. I did a kind of 'in media res' thing where I started with Moe French and the van incident but went back to when Emma first arrived. But I'm going to go on with the story and hopefully go all the way to Moe's scene and beyond.

I'm also really sorry about the lack of dialogue in this chapter. This was really more of an experimental chapter where I tried to get inside everyone's heads and show what they were thinking. The characters at the moment don't exactly have many friends they can confide in at this point, either. It's quite sad. But I will try to get more storyline going in the next chapter.

Last but never least I'd like to thank the people who reviewed what I've written so far. Being a first time writer here, I really appreciate it. Reviews are always appreciated!


	3. Nameless

Nameless

A/N: I'd just like to say sorry for the delay and thank my reviewers once again! You're all awesome!

The morning sunlight shone through a tiny window above the cell. The little warmth it provided was just enough to awake the girl from her death-like slumber. This morning was different from all the rest.

The girl sat up, feeling more aware of things around her than she'd felt since…ever. The medicines were nearly out of her system, and it wasn't quite time for the next round of them, but something felt different. Every morning was more or less a blur if she remembered them at all, but as she sat looking around her cell, she took account of herself and her surroundings for the first time.

She attempted to pull her messy hair from out of her face as she looked around the room.

_It's more like a jail cell,_ she thought.

The room was indeed similar to a jail cell. The walls and floor were gray, but weren't there usually bars instead of a full door?

_How did I even wind up in here?_

The girl realized with a jolt that she had absolutely no idea how she ended up in there. She couldn't remember being anywhere other than that little prison. There were no memories of a home, relatives, friends, or anything. The only person she could really remember was the nurse that came in everyday to deliver meals, and she hardly spoke at all to her.

_Surely I know more people than this. _She dug into her mind again. She somehow knew the basic rules of etiquette and politeness when speaking to others, and what the different tones of voice meant.

_I must have spoken with people before. I also know what a jail cell should look like, and I know what a nurse is, which means I must have received some sort of education, _she reasoned.

She sat for a moment, trying to remember something, anything, that could tell her who she is. Or was. But the click of a lock interrupted her thoughts.

A short young nurse walked in with a tray of food. Her brown hair was pinned up, and she seemed to be in a sort of daze as well. She looked up at the patient whom, to her astonishment, was looking back up at her intently.

"Oh! Erm, good morning." the nurse said nervously. This patient had never spoken to her before, and it caught her off guard.

The rules of etiquette could wait. "Where am I?" the patient asked.

"You're in Storybrooke Hospital, dear." replied the nurse with a small but kind smile.

"I-I don't understand. Am I sick?"

"Well, I don't know all the details, but…you don't know why you're here?" The nurse looked concerned.

"No, I don't know why I'm here, or how I even got here. I can't remember anything! Not my life, not my family-"

"Shh, it's okay." interrupted the nurse. She knew that patients often 'forgot' things momentarily when they panicked or were under a lot of stress.

"Alright, I'm going to help you calm down." the nurse began. The nurse remembered from her training that it was standard procedure to calm patients down by discussing topics most familiar to the patients, like names, family members, pets, etc. "Why don't you start by telling me your name?"

"It's-" The girl stopped cold. She didn't know her own name. Fear swelled up inside her, but if the nurse noticed, she must have thought it was just nervousness. The nurse then said,

"I'll tell you what. I'll go outside and get my clipboard, it's got all your information on there, and I'll come back here and help you through this. Okay?"

"Okay." the patient meekly replied.

The nurse turned to leave. She didn't know the patient's name either. She must have simply missed on the papers. The small nurse walked down the narrow hallway, and peeked around the corner to the front of the hall. The head nurse sat at her desk drinking tea and reading through some papers. The short nurse told herself that she shouldn't be afraid of the head nurse, and that it was silly, but there was something really intimidating about this lady. The only person scarier than the head nurse was the mayor. But the short nurse had never talked to her in person.

The small woman stepped behind the desk quietly and reached for the clipboard hanging on the wall. Almost miraculously, the head nurse didn't notice. Or at least she didn't appear to.

The nurse silently walked back to the patient's 'room', reading the clipboard along the way. There was nothing outstanding in the medicines, no serious medical issues, or anything of the sort. In fact, there was hardly anything listed at all about the patient's medical history.

_How strange, _thought the nurse. She went into the cell and sat down across from the patient. The nurse noticed that the patient had eaten all her breakfast but had not touched the medicines.

"Alright, let's see." The nurse paused to read through the 'personal information' sheet. To her immediate surprise, the paper was completely blank. There was no name, age, height, or any kind of information on any of the other papers either.

"Oh, dear. These papers haven't been filled out." The patient's eyes widened at the news.

"You mean nobody knows who I am?" she cried.

"It's all right. We're going to get to the bottom of this. But I need you to please tell me everything you remember. It's important. Okay?" the nurse responded. "Just start with your name. Everybody's got a name.

"I don't."

"Yes, you do. Everyone has a name. Mine's Jane, for example."

But the girl looked at the nurse with dead seriousness and shook her head. The nurse finally began to see how scared the girl really was.

The nurse paused. "You really don't remember your name?" she asked quietly. Something was terribly wrong.

"Tell me the last thing you remember. Anything at all." the nurse said very seriously. But the words were lost on the girl. She stared at the ground.

_I can't remember my name, _she thought. _Maybe I never had one._

A/N: So this chapter isn't all that long either, and I'm sorry. I'll try to update with more chapters soon, and I'll try to make them longer.

Up next is Rumpel, Regina plotting some more, and Jefferson at the café.

Please Review and thanks!


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